Who Supplied Global Photovoltaic Market in 2016

At present, China is the largest polycrystalline silicon producer in the world with GCL-Poly being the market leader. However, in 2016, Wacker-Chemie (Germany) and OCI (South Korea) dominated the world’s second and third supplier positions in this field.

The battle of photovoltaic trade between China and America is not over. Anti-dumping tariff has already caused a loss of American polycrystalline silicon producers and the two giant Suniva and SolarWorld still cannot avoid bankruptcy.

Photovoltaic module and battery market remains diversified. Market share of the top ten manufacturers remains stable though the ranking has changed for some of the firms have went bankrupt while some of them moved up. In contrast, global inverter market has showed an active merger trend due to the driving force of growing large companies.

At present, most of the world’s largest photovoltaic battery and module manufacturers establish factories in foreign countries in order to reduce import tariff, take advantage of cheap labor force and to enjoy local tax preference, therefore these products are manufactured in many different countries.

In 2016, share of thin-film module manufacturer FirstSolar and SolarFrontie (Japan) accounted for only 4.6% in the global photovoltaic module market, showing a decline compared to 5.7% in 2015.